Bernard Schoenburg: Anti-Rauner fund gets underway

There seems to be a bit of irony in the naming of a political fund apparently aimed at taking on Republican gubernatorial candidate BRUCE RAUNER.

Paperwork was filed with the State Board of Elections last week to form The Republican Fund for Progress and Jobs, which is an independent expenditure political action committee. The chairman and treasurer is STEVEN SHEARER of Peoria, former chief of staff and campaign manager to state Rep. AARON SCHOCK, R-Peoria.

This is apparently a group that will gather money from anti-Rauner forces, particularly labor unions — as was recently tipped in Capitol Fax.

As an independent expenditure group, the new PAC can raise unlimited amounts, but it cannot make direct contributions to candidates or coordinate expenditures with candidates.

Well, just about a year ago, Shearer had lambasted ads being run in central Illinois against Schock by an Ohio-based group called Jobs and Progess Fund. That group didn’t have to disclose donors, and Shearer stopped just short at the time of accusing Rauner of sponsoring the ads. He said the ads were about the possibility that Schock would run for governor from potential opponents, such as Rauner.

Rauner at the time said he had “nothing at all” to do with those ads. Schock later withdrew from consideration of running for governor.

The new PAC showed no money on hand as of Friday. Any donation of more than $150 will have to be itemized on quarterly reports, and any donation of $1,000 or more will have to be reported within days after being deposited.

Rauner, of Winnetka, last week announced he had raised $4 million in the final quarter of 2013. Of that, $1 million came from Rauner himself.

Rauner spokesman MIKE SCHRIMPF responded to the PAC filing by saying, “The government labor union bosses and other PAT QUINN allies have made it clear they intend to fund efforts to try to hijack the Republican primary. They know Bruce is the only real threat to their stranglehold on Springfield. Bruce is fully prepared to defeat them and transform state government for the good of taxpayers, workers and schoolchildren.”

Lost somewhere in there is the acrimony Quinn has generated from some government employee unions who opposed the pension reforms he just signed. But it’s also clear that Rauner would not be the unions’ guy, as he pushes for things like replacing defined benefit pensions with 401(k)-type plans for many public workers.

The other GOP candidates for governor are state Sens. BILL BRADY of Bloomington and KIRK DILLARD of Hinsdale, and state Treasurer DAN RUTHERFORD of Chenoa.

Page 2 of 3 - Food fight

U.S. Rep. RODNEY DAVIS, R-Taylorville, had a news conference at Pana Junior High School on Dec. 6, introducing legislation called the School Nutrition Fairness Act to require the White House and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to abide by the same standards that schools serving breakfast or lunch have to follow.

Urbana lawyer ERIKA HAROLD, who is taking on Davis in the March 18 Republican primary in the 13th Congressional District, called the move a “gimmick.”

Davis said he had heard from educators across the district that new nutritional regulations were leading to “increased costs, decreased participation, and in some cases, hungry children.”

He said the National School Lunch Program in the 2012-13 school year set calorie ranges and weekly limits on grains and meat consumption. He said that during a House Committee on Education & the Workforce hearing in June, the General Accountability Office testified that a majority of eight school districts that agency’s staff visited said the requirements were leaving some students hungry and made it difficult to plan menus. Some said they had to add items like ice cream, butter and cheese sauce to meet the standards, but that “did not improve the nutritional value” of the meals.

“In order to demonstrate to the executive branch the problems that these regulations are imposing on our school districts, I think the White House and USDA (cafeterias) should have to abide by” the same rules, Davis said in a statement the day of the Pana event.

The Washington Times, in an editorial last week, picked up on Davis’ idea, noting that “world-class chefs put nine different fattening pies on the Thanksgiving Day menu” at the home of the president. The headline was, “Hypocrisy on the White House menu.”

The editorial said Davis thinks “the president could use an extra helping of humble pie,” and the newspaper asked: “Will the Obamas put their mouths where our money is?”

Harold said last week that she thinks Davis’ legislation represents “government by gimmicks,” which she said frustrates voters.

She said she’s visited many schools, and nutritional standards are not something that administrators or students raised with her.

“But if there is a serious problem, then I would expect serious legislation to actually address the problem, and not un-serious attempts to score political points,” Harold said.

On Friday, Davis issued another news release noting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a final rule to permanently eliminate grain and protein limits.

Davis called it a “good first step,” but added, “we’ll continue to work with the administration and the USDA to ensure that schools have the flexibility and certainty they need” to serve good meals “that will actually be eaten” and comply with regulations. Davis spokesman ANDREW FLACH said more flexibility to comply with calorie ranges — also recommended by the GAO — is still needed.

Page 3 of 3 - Davis’ statement Friday also noted that Davis is a co-sponsor of H.R. 1303, legislation to prohibit the secretary of agriculture from promulgating rules applicable to school lunch and breakfast programs that establish a maximum quantity of grains, meat or meal alternatives that may be served in any school meal.

Flach called the Davis legislation announced at Pana “a commonsense policy change that would send a message to the administration and the USDA, who have been dragging their feet on providing some much-needed certainty and flexibility on this issue.”

Harold noted that the USDA news release issued last week said that based on public feedback, the agency made a number of updates to meal standards, including additional flexibility in ranges for grain and meat amounts already there on a temporary basis since 2012. The release said USDA had promised to make “meat and grain flexibility permanent,” and according to an official there, “We have delivered on that promise.”

Harold said it is unclear to her how Davis’ proposed legislation “has any impact whatsoever on polices the USDA already had in place and flexibility the USDA already agreed to make permanent.”

Harold, meanwhile, never received a response to her request for several debates with Davis. She has now set up a series of six town hall forums she is conducting as a candidate. Voters, she said, “deserve substantive engagement, and I’m committed to doing that regardless of whether Representative Davis is willing to step on the same stage with me.”

Harold, who was Miss America for 2003 and is a graduate of Harvard Law School, is joined on the March 18 GOP ballot by Davis and MICHAEL FIRSCHING, a veterinarian from Moro.

The town halls, running 6 to 8 p.m., include one in Litchfield Tuesday at the VFW Hall, 215 Ryder; and one Feb. 5 at Springfield’s municipal Lincoln Library, 326 S. Seventh St.